Second Rise of Islam

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Thursday, 16 November 2017

I think we should understand properly what is Eman and what
is Eman bil ghaib. Eman is such belief which a person develops in himself after
getting knowledge that the belief he believes in is a reality. If this
knowledge is based on the person’s reasoning as well as observations/
experiences, it may lead to common
‘Eman’; if this knowledge is based on the person’s reasoning ONLY, it may
lead to ‘Eman bil ghaib’. It may be appreciated knowledge does not essentially
lead to Eman/ ‘Eman bil ghaib’; however Eman/Eman bil ghaibis always based on knowledge- whether this
knowledge is based on both reasoning and observations/ experiences OR based on
reasoning only. For instance if a
gunshot is fired at me by an expert sniper, I still may not believe that the
bullet would hit me though my knowledge may dictate me otherwise. But if I
develop Eman that the bullet would hit me, such Eman would be based on my
knowledge about the expertise of the shooter. A prisoner convicted with death
sentence and having exhausted and failed in all appeals still may have belief
that he will not be hanged though his knowledge maydictate him otherwise. But if he develops
belief/ Eman that he would be hanged, such belief would be based on his
knowledge.

It may be appreciated there is no such thing as
blind Faith/Eman. For instance, if we ask a person (declared as having so
called blind faith) to believe in Geeta as Quran, he will not believe that
Geeta is Quran. Why? Because his ‘Eman’ in Quran is not without his knowledge
that Quran is such a Book which has been revealed to our Rasool ﷺ and its contents are true.A born Muslim’s Eman, in his childhood or adulthood,
is usually based on his knowledge that his parents are Muslims and that
knowledge of his parents is right. It may be appreciated ‘knowledge’-whether
based on both observation/experience and reasoning or based on reasoning only- is
a quality which can be exercised by a well -educated as well as an illiterate
person.As for rightness or wrongness of knowledge, knowledge of both
well -educated and illiterate person may be turned to be wrong or right.

It may also be
appreciated that ‘Eman bil ghaib’ is relating to things which cannot be
perceived through physical faculties; for instance belief in paradise, Hell,
Angels etc. cannot be perceived through common human physical faculties; as
such these things are subject of ‘Eman bil ghaib’. As against Eman bil ghaib,
common ‘Eman’ is related to things which can be perceived through common human
physical faculties. As already mentioned above, ‘Eman bil ghaib’ is always
based on reasoning, and common Eman is based on reasoning as well as
observation/ experience. In other words, the things which cannot be perceived
through common senses may be believed through reasoning ONLY, and this process of
believing is called ‘Eman bil ghaib’; and the things which can be perceived
through common senses may be believed through reasoning as well as
observation/experience, and such process is called common ‘Eman’.

Quran, Hadith and
person of Muhammad ﷺ are
not subject of ‘Eman bil ghaib’; because Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ were
perceived through human senses. We know Muhammad ﷺ spent more than 60 years among the people, and
he ﷺ
interacted with the
people and people got training, education, self-purgation and purification by
his ﷺ
person. His person cannot be a subject of ‘Eman bil
ghaib’.Almost all important events of
his ﷺ
life are recorded; it is through contents of Quran and Hadith
that we can see what was his ﷺ conduct,
life and preaching. In this way, he ﷺ did
not remain, for the next generations, a person who cannot be perceived through
common senses.

In short, Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ are
not subject of ‘Eman bil ghaib’; rather they are subject of common ‘Eman’. As
mentioned earlier, common Eman is always based onreasoning as well as observation/
experience. Thus our knowledge based on reasoning and observation/ experiences
may be basis of our Eman/ Faith on contents of Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ.But as mentioned
earlier, knowledge cannot essentially lead
us to Eman; but Eman is always based on knowledge. In other words, if we have
developed Eman in Muhammad ﷺ,
in Quran and Hadith,
it means we have exercised our reasoning and have made use of our observations/
experiences.

It may
be appreciated ‘common Eman’ is subject of things which can be perceived
through common human physical senses. Therefore it is not essential for
reposing common ‘Eman’ in Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ that a person should have personal observation/ experience
regarding reality of Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ ; it would be enough to have common ‘Eman’ in Quran, Hadith
and Muhammad ﷺ if other people have
observations/ experiences regarding reality of Quran, Hadith and Muhammad ﷺ. That is why we believe
in Muhammad ﷺ though we were not born in the age of Muhammad
ﷺ; we believe in Quran though we
were not born when Quran was being revealed to our Nabi ﷺ ; we believe in Hadith though we were not born when ahadith
were being listened by the narrators. In short, in order to have ‘common
Eman’in Muhammad ﷺ, in Quran and Hadith, we have to believe in what has been
narratedby companions of our Nabi ﷺregarding our Nabi ﷺ and his ﷺ sayings and actionson the basis of their knowledge based on their observations and
experiences. In other words, we have to believe in observations and experiences of narrators; otherwise we cannot have knowledge required for having Eman in Muhammad s.a.w.ww., in Quran and Hadith. However such narration is subject to ascertainment that it has
been rightly attributed to our Nabi ﷺ.

Sunday, 12 November 2017

Munkareen
e Hadith are confusing contents of Nabuwwah with contents of Quran and Hadith
which are functions of Resalah/Nabuwwah. Allah has clearly differentiated
between contents of Nabuwwah/ Resalah and contents of Quran/ Hadith. Allah
says:

“O
you who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He
sent down upon His Messenger and the Scripture which He sent down before. And
whoever disbelieves in Allah , His angels, His books, His messengers, and the
Last Day has certainly gone far astray” (al-nisaa-136).

This verse demands Eman/ faith
not only in Allah’s Messenger/ ‘Rasool’ but also in the Book He revealed unto
His ‘Rasool’; that means Eman/Faith in contents of Resalah is something different
from Eman/Faith in contents of Quran. Similarly Quran says:

"
.....So believe in Allah and His Messenger/ Rasool, the unlettered Nabi, who
believes in Allah and His words, and follow (wattabiuhu)) him that you may be
guided (al-aaraf-158).

This
verse too describes that believing in Nabi ﷺ is something different from following
the Nabi ﷺ.
That means Eman/Faith in contents of Nabuwwah is different from Eman/Faith in
contents of Hadith (sayings/actions of our Nabi ﷺ).

The
Contents of Nabuwwah are relating to Eman/ Faith. Any person, even out of
ignorance, cannot deny Eman/ faith; if he does so he becomes 'kafir'. But if
any person denies any verse of Quran or any hadith- due to the fact that he
does not know about existence of such verse or hadith- he does not become
kafir. This is the difference between contents of Nabuwwah/ Resalah and
contents of Quran and Hadith.

The contents of Nabuwwah are to have Eman/faith that Muhammad ﷺ
is Allah's last Nabi ﷺ; that he ﷺ receives
wahi from Allah through angel (al-shu,ra-52); that he ﷺ
interprets Quranic Words
through the wahi he ﷺ recieves (al-qiyamah-19); that sayings/actions of Nabi ﷺ
are interpretations of Quran (al-aa,raf-203) and as such are part of Deen. Contents of Resalah
are to have faith that Muhammad ﷺ is Allah's Rasool; he ﷺ
receives wahi from Allah directly (al-Jin-26;27) or through the angel; he ﷺ received
Quran i.e. Allah's Words from Allah through wahi; Quran is guidance for
humanity till Qiyamah.

It
means contents of Nabuwwah and Resalah are relating to Faith/ Eman; denial of
these contents of Nabuwwah and Resalah is kufr. It may be appreciated contents
of Nabuwwah and Resalah are included in the contents of Quran and Hadith (contents
of Quran and Hadith are actually functions of Resalah and Nabuwwah respectively).
But there are some differences between the two; all contents of Nabuwwah/Resalah
are included in the contents of Quran/Hadith but all contents of Quran/Hadith
are not included in the contents of Resalah/Nabuwwah. The contents of Nabuwwah
and Resalah are only relating to Eman/faith but contents of Quran and Hadith
are also relating to actions. Denial of contents of Quran and Hadith- is also
kufr; that means denial of contents of Quran (after knowing its existence), and
Hadith (which is believed to be rightly attributed to our Nabi s.a.w.w.) is
kufr though such denial may not be denial of Nabuwwah and Resalah.

As mentioned above, contents of Quran and
Hadith are functions of Resalah and Nabuwwah; out of these contents of Quran
and Hadith, some are relating to contents of Resalah/Nabuwwah. It means
contents of Resalah/ Nabuwwah are such functions of Resalah/Nabuwwah which are
relating to only Eman. It may be appreciated all functions of Resalah/ Nabuwwah
which are related to Eman are not contents of Resalah/Nabuwwah; there are also some other functions of
Resalah/Nabuwwah which are relating to Eman but are not contents of
Resalah/Nabuwwa. Some of these other functions of Resalah/Nabuwwah relating to
Eman have been described in verse al-nisa-136 mentioned above; these are: having Eman/Faith in Allah, in Quran, in Messengers, previous Divine Books, in Angels, in AAkhirah. The list also includes having Faith in the Messenger/ Muhammad s.a.w.w. but having faith in Messenger/Muhammad s.a.w.w. relates to contents of Resalah.

Wednesday, 25 October 2017

India has become very important tool in USA’s foreign
policy. As has been stated in part (1) of this article, containment of China is
no longer an objective of US’s Afghan policy. The USA knows they cannot contain
China’s economic expansion and China’s political expansion which goes
along-with economic expansion. The nuclear age does not allow US to contain
China militarily as well.However US can
use its military power to have its share in the world’s economic development
due to Chinese economic expansion. This consideration provides rationale of
importance of India in US’s foreign policy in the region; US sees India’s
military power, particularly naval power, as desirable addition to the US’s
military capability. In return US is ready to accept India’s enhanced influence
in the region, particularly in Afghanistan and South Asia. In this perspective,
Pakistan should not expect any concession from India regarding Kashmir Dispute.
On the contrary, it is combined strategy of US and India to destabilize
Pakistan through Afghanistan; this destabilization policy aims at weakening of
Pakistan’s role and central position in C-Pak project; it is where convergence
of US’s and India’s interests occurs. However it may be appreciated US has
accepted the reality of China’s economic rise and as such US would not hamper
China’s way to economic progress, though US, like India, would like to curtail
Pakistan’s central position in C-Pak project.

In other words, US’s expressed opposition to C-Pak is not
US’s basic regional foreign policy consideration, though such opposition may be
taken as a tool to achieve some foreign policy objectives; one such
objective, as already discussed, is to curtail Pakistan’s centrality in the
C-Pak project. Another such objective is to bring Pakistan into terms to settle Kashmir Dispute in India’s
favor so that India should remain on US’s side in this international scenario
in which India may change the side to become a part of C-Pak and abandon its
role of China’s strategic competitor in the region. It may be noted China also may not oppose US,
if any move is initiated by US to settle Kashmir Dispute in India’s favor,
because China’s interests, as a blossoming economy, are to have a conflict free
neighboring area which is more conducive for propagation of Chinese trade and
commercial interests. Pakistan would have to show greater resilience in
opposing any such settlement of Kashmir Dispute, which goes against Kashmiri
people’s interests.

Another objective behind US’s hostile statement regarding
C-Pak may be to bring Pakistan into terms to acquiesce into US’s position and
interests in Afghanistan so that US’s friendly coalition regime in Afghanistan
may be established, and Pakistan’s friendly Afghan regime may be avoided. As
stated earlier, if Pakistan concedes to US’s demands regarding Afghanistan, it
would damage Pakistan’s central position of C-Pak and lead to enhancement of India’s
political and commercial interests in the region. India is US’s strategic
partner and as such India’s enhanced commercial and political influence in the
region would be seen as duly sharing of C-Pak benefits between US, India, China
and Pakistan; but, as mentioned earlier, this sharing would be at the cost of
Pakistan’s commercial interests as well as Pakistan's and other regional Muslim countries’ long term interests regarding establishment
of an Islamic block in the region.

After accepting the fact that China has beaten US in terms
of state’s economic strength and after changing its policy of containment of
China through Afghanistan occupation, US has cautiously devised regarding
Afghanistan such foreign policy objectives which do not run counter to
interests of China and Russia. We may appreciate above discussed US’s objectives
behind anti-C-Pak statements do not run
counter to interests of China and Russia; that is why China and Russia, so far,
have not supported Taliban to the extent where Taliban may be enabled to flush
out US’s forces from Afghanistan, as
Taliban had flushed out Russian forces from Afghanistan in the near past. A
balanced Afghan regime, having no tilt to Pakistan, is in favor of China,
Russia, USA and India because such Afghan regime may be used to propagate, on the
one hand, trade and commercial interests between China, Russia and India by
forcing Pakistan to open land routes between CAS and India, and, on the other
hand, commercial interests of US in Afghanistan.

From the foregoing, we may conclude that Pakistan has to
show its utmost strong resolve to protect its strategic and economic interests.
The main driver of anti-Pakistan diplomacy is the US; the discussed
anti-Pakistan objectives are basically US’s interests. It is US which is taking
China and Russia along to implement its policy objectives; China and Russia
cannot force Pakistan to acquiesce into US’s interests in Afghanistan. C-Pak project’s
importance for China cannot be overemphasized; Russia also can avail the
benefits of C-Pak. In this way, C-Pak limits China’s and Russia’s capability to
force Pakistan to compromise its strategic and commercial interests. Pakistan
does not have to be short-sighted to concede to US’s demand regarding
Afghanistan and India (concluded).